Biographical Data :

The founder of rebel group the Free Aceh Movement, Hasan di Tiro fought Jakarta a three-decade war of independence until he eventually disbanded the faction under a peace accord in 2005.

A major figure in the establishment of the group, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), in 1976, Hasan continued to oversee it from Europe during years of fighting in Aceh, a resource-rich province of the island of Sumatra. A man of frail figure who had adopted Swedish citizenship, returned to large crowds in Aceh in October 2008 after the peace deal ended the fighting.

The peace accord, signed in 2005, followed the earthquake and tsunami of 2004 that killed nearly 170,000 people in Aceh alone and wiped out vast parts of its capital. Hasan along with the most prominent of the former GAM rebels were rehabilitated by Jakarta.

The agreement granted Aceh limited autonomy and allowed for the establishment of local parties, paving the way for the Aceh Party of former GAM fighters to dominate local politics. The province, historically distinct from much of the rest of Indonesia, has in force large elements of Islamic law. Indonesia is far flung archipelago of 240 million people

Born Tengku Muhammad Hasan di Tiro, near Pidie, in Aceh, he was a descendant of Cik di Tiro, an Acehnese leader who has long been celebrated as an Indonesian national hero for running a 19th century guerrilla “holy war” against the Dutch. Hasan studied law in his country then in the US, where he graduated from Columbia University and received a doctorate in international law from the University of Plano in Texas.